Pakistani Blasphemy Laws Escort To Discrimination Of Minority Groups

Blasphemy law in Pakistan is becoming more and more strong weapon for Muslim extremists. Even though there has never been a death sentence under the act, vigilantes repeatedly deceive and from time to time kill believers of minority faiths blamed of blasphemy.

minorities protest against blasphemy

According to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch criticize Pakistan’s documentation of defending its religious minorities, says that 2014 world report shows that “mistreatment has extensively risen under Pakistan’s offensive blasphemy law, which is used against minority faiths, often to settle personal quarrel. They enclose an environment of terror, power terrified judges into pending court conferences within prisons and preventing eyewitnesses to give statement to the protection of those on trial.The national religious affairs ministry has denied the statement. Government officials did not responded on the comment.

Secretary-general of Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam, Maulana Abdul Rauf Farooqi abandoned the accusation that the law is generally altered to settle personal issues, although he said he supports a thorough police inquiry before accuses are filed. He said those who were actually harassed had conveyed the aggression upon themselves by enraging Muslims’ emotions.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, last year 34 people were charged with blasphemy. As per of government statistic 27 were charged in 2012. At least 16 people are presently on death sentence for blasphemy, while another 20 are serving life imprisonment, according to Human Rights Watch. Rescue Christians, a U.S.-based charity working for four years in Pakistan, its head Keith Davies stated that “In the last three years we have seen a large increase in the number of cases of blasphemy”

Pakistan is not the only state with such commandment on the books. Blasphemy felony are punished in more than 30 nations, including some with majority of Christian populations, such as Poland and Greece, as well as Muslim countries like Indonesia and Pakistan, according to a 2012 report by the Interfaith Center of New York.

The majority of Pakistan’s 180 million people are Sunni Muslims, who don’t support the militants’ interference or their loathing for religious minorities. On the other hand, the minorities, as well as Muslims who belong to the Shiite section of Islam, say even the smallest argue can let them in jail on fabricated blasphemy charges.

The hostility connected with Pakistan’s blasphemy law has been vicious. Three years ago, moderate Govt. Salman Taseer was gun downed by his own security guard for defending a Christian woman accused with blasphemy. In a separate attack, militants assassinated Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti after he operation for modification in the law. Last year in July, two brothers charged with insulting Islam’s prophet were murdered as they stepped out of a court. A Christian, Tariq is presently in hidden after authorities accused him with blasphemy charges. He said the charges came over a fight he had with two customers who bought defective firecrackers from him. When he refused to apologize, he said the customers went to the police in Lahore and lied that he had stuffed the firecrackers with pages from the Quran. Fearing capture by Pakistani forces he seeks asylum outside of the country.